Girls Rock!: Fifty Years of Women Making Music

by Mina Carson, Tisa Lewis, Susan M. Shaw

With a foreword by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards

Girls Rock! explores the many ways women have defined themselves as rock musicians in an industry once dominated and controlled by men. Integrating history, feminist analysis, and developmental theory, the authors describe how and why women have become rock musicians―what inspires them to play and perform, how they write, what their music means to them, and what they hope their music means to listeners. As these musicians tell their stories, topics emerge that illuminate broader trends in rock's history. From Wanda Jackson's revolutionary act of picking up a guitar to the current success of independent artists such as Ani DiFranco, Girls Rock! examines the shared threads of these performers' lives and the evolution of women's roles in rock music since its beginnings in the 1950s. This provocative investigation of women in rock is based on numerous interviews with a broad spectrum of women performers―those who have achieved fame and those just starting bands, those playing at local coffeehouses and those selling out huge arenas. Girls Rock! celebrates what female musicians have to teach about their experiences as women, artists, and rock musicians.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction, Feminism

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 23, 2004

Reviews

[Petty Lisbon]

This was okay. I think it was a little all over the place content wise (you went from Motown girl groups to 70's women's musicians to the 80's chart toppers to the 90's alternative scene and then some new millennium people, with musicians ranging from Stevie Nicks level successes to people who only sell out of vans) but this book was more about playing music and the industry rather than the cultural aspects of it. I came in just wanting anecdotes from my favorites but I think the part that I was most interested in was how Motown girl groups needed to take etiquette classes and how black girl groups had to be prim and proper and couldn't really maneuver out of their strict images as easily in order to appeal to white people. I also liked hearing about people who had a few hits on a major label but quickly went back to being indie.

[Debbie De steno]

Very empowering! A second book is wanted for sure

[Jenny]

This is a surprisingly academic book. It was written by a few local women who teach at OSU. Based on the blurb and title I expected it to be different, but this is too be used when writing a paper. It was very interesting though!

[Byurakn]

too many names.

[M. Fenn]

Wonderful book. I highly recommend it, if you're interested in the subject.